-LRB- The Hollywood Reporter -RRB- It 's official : AMC 's `` The Walking Dead '' companion series has a title .

Executive producer Robert Kirkman announced Friday that the companion series , which starts as a prequel to the original , will be titled `` Fear The Walking Dead . ''

Read more : `` Walking Dead '' from comics to the small screen

The news comes as the companion went through development season -- and was picked up to series and preemptively renewed for a second season -- under code names including `` Cobalt '' and `` Fear The Walking Dead . ''

On March 9 , AMC announced the series pickup and renewal for the then-untitled series .

Kirkman , who created `` The Walking Dead '' comic series , co-wrote the pilot with Dave Erickson of `` Sons of Anarchy . '' Kirkman and Erickson will executive produce alongside `` Walking Dead 's '' Gale Anne Hurd and Dave Alpert . Erickson will serve as showrunner , and Adam Davidson will direct the pilot . `` Walking Dead '' visual effects guru Greg Nicotero will also executive produce the series .

While AMC has been tight-lipped on the series ' premise , sources tell `` The Hollywood Reporter '' that the drama is a prequel that takes place in Los Angeles at the onset of the zombie outbreak . AMC confirmed that the companion series is set in Los Angeles but revealed nothing more beyond that it will focus on new characters and storylines .

Read more : `` The Walking Dead 's ' `` Most Shocking Deaths

Cliff Curtis -LRB- `` Gang Related '' -RRB- stars as Sean Cabrera , a teacher who shares a son with his ex-wife . `` Sons of Anarchy 's '' Kim Dickens is set to co-star as Nancy , a guidance counselor who works at the school with Sean and is seeing him romantically . Frank Dillane -LRB- `` Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince '' -RRB- co-stars as Nancy 's son Nick , who has battled a drug problem . And Alycia Debnam Carey -LRB- `` Into the Woods '' -RRB- is will play Nancy 's ambitious daughter , Ashley , who is the polar opposite of Nick and dreams of leaving Los Angeles for Berkeley when the apocalypse strikes .

`` Fear The Walking Dead '' will premiere in the late summer with season two set for 2016 . An official premiere date has not yet been announced . The season five finale of the flagship series airs Sunday at 9 p.m.

Read more : How `` The Walking Dead '' stumbled in its storytelling this season

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Show will star `` Sons of Anarchy 's '' Kim Dickens and Cliff Curtis of `` Gang Related ''